"I will certainly listen to the Party, follow the Party, and carry the revolution through to the end..."
This is what a veteran said to his family on the eve of receiving honors, simple but touching.
On June 29, 2021, after saying these words to his family, the veteran embarked on a journey to Beijing, this time at the age of 92 in the Great Hall of the People.
However, the way the old man came to the Great Hall of the People was very special, with 21 police cars opening the road and 5 state guest cars escorting him, and after a distance of 8 kilometers, he finally stopped at the entrance of the Great Hall of the People.
The staff at the door had been waiting for a long time, and several people carried the old man in a wheelchair directly into the Great Hall of the People!
So who is this old man? What did he do to make the country treat it so specially?
Fight a war to be at the forefront
In fact, this old man's name is Wang Zhanshan, and there is no doubt that he must have made outstanding merits for the country to be treated with such courtesy. When Wang Zhanshan joined the party at the age of 19, the instructor patted him on the shoulder and said to him: "Since you have joined the party, you will rush to the front in the future war."
At that time, Wang Zhanshan was actually the youngest among the people who joined the party, but he remembered this sentence deeply from then on with a resolute look.
Since then, Wang Zhanshan has participated in many battles, such as the Liaoshen Campaign, the Pingjin Campaign, etc., and in each battle, he really rushed to the front as he promised.
In 1949, Wang Zhanshan received orders from his superiors during the battle to take jintang bridge. At this time, jintang bridge was an important position, and the Kuomintang had already deployed heavy troops here.
Not only that, because of the uniqueness of the design, Jintang Bridge is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not easy to complete this task. Wang Zhanshan's team began to concentrate on attacking, and the warriors began to advance after the enemy's fire point was weakened.
However, when everyone had just advanced a few meters, they suddenly found that there were many enemy troops ambushed around them, which caught Wang Zhanshan's team by surprise.
Just when everyone was struggling to resist, Wang Zhanshan was anxious to see that the task was delayed, so he saw the timing and crawled forward alone with the explosive package on his back, fortunately, because the fire point was too fierce, the enemy did not find him.
Wang Zhanshan soon reached the enemy's hiding point, the enemy army was blown back, and our army successfully took the Jintang Bridge. After this battle, the resourceful Wang Zhanshan soon became famous and was promoted to squad leader.
After the liberation of the whole country, people have not had time to cheer and rejoice, and the campaign to resist US aggression and aid Korea will also begin. So Wang Zhanshan, as a member of the volunteer army, resolutely embarked on the road to Korea.
In 1953, when the Campaign to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea reached its most critical moment, the US military received news that the Volunteer Army had no heavy weapons, let alone bombers, and only a few rifles.
So an American general once promised his subordinates that the volunteer army could be completely annihilated in one day.
However, this general could not have imagined that the volunteer army with only rifles and grenades would annihilate the heavily equipped American troops!
At this time, Wang Zhanjun, who was only in his early 20s but had already been promoted to platoon commander, asked his superiors for an order: Please entrust us with this most difficult task. So Wang Zhanshan received a very important task: to hold the heights on the left side of 408.1 and 418.1.
The geographical location of this highland was very special, which directly affected the situation of this counterattack war, and Wang Zhanshan had only one platoon of strength.
"Resurrected" Wang Zhanshan
The battle was extremely fierce, the American bombers bombed the ground one after another, and the heavy tanks in front were still advancing, but they only had rifles and grenades in their hands, but the supply of bullets had also bottomed out.
The volunteers struggled to resist the repeated bombardments of the American army, the artillery fire was too fierce, and the casualties in the team were heavy, but Wang Zhanshan led the team without taking a step back.
The whole hill was flattened, the ground was blown red, and soon the volunteers were running out of bullets, and they could only use stones as weapons to smash the enemy troops down the hill.
However, because the strength of the two sides was too disparate, Wang Zhanshan, as a platoon leader, soon realized that such a strong attack was not the way to go, so he commanded the fighters to wait until the enemy army was tens of meters away from him before launching an attack.
This method worked and saved guns, and only one platoon of soldiers actually blocked several enemy attacks back and forth. The enemy saw that just a few people could not attack for a long time, so their hearts began to worry.
The US army no longer attacked by force, but changed to a way of "drawing salaries from the bottom of the cauldron", that is, cutting off our army's food supply from the rear, and the volunteer army was again a brass wall and an iron wall, and if there was no food, it would always starve to death.
The US military's thinking is indeed correct, but they underestimate the determination and perseverance of the Chinese!
After the rear supply was cut off, our army insisted for three days to reach its limit, and in order to fill their stomachs, they dug up grass roots and picked up tree bark, but they did not let go of anything that could enter their mouths.
However, the weather conditions at that time were extremely harsh, it was cold and frozen, the temperature reached minus thirty or forty degrees, not to mention wild vegetables, and even the dry grass was not enough to eat.
So Wang Zhanshan led the soldiers, taking advantage of the night when the enemy army relaxed their vigilance, went to the enemy's corpse to search for food to eat, and this search really happened to be good luck, and they did find a lot of supplies for the US army, including canned food and vegetables.
This solved a big problem for the soldiers, and the teammates instantly rekindled their confidence!
The artillery fire on the battlefield sounded again, and the roar resounded through the mountain, and soon, a bomb exploded next to Wang Zhanshan, and a large pit was instantly pierced on the ground.
Wang Zhanshan only felt a scorching heat wave sweep through his body, followed by a huge roar in his ears, and his whole body seemed to be shattered, so as soon as his eyes went black, he didn't know anything.
When he was conscious again, he heard the anxious voice of his teammates: "Wang Platoon Leader, Wang Platoon Leader is about to wake up, instructor him..."
The tearing pain made Wang Zhanshan uncomfortable, his eyes were black, and there was a sharp pain in his throat, but as soon as he heard the three words of the instructor, he was instantly excited: What is wrong with the instructor, he must not be in trouble!
The huge willpower supported Wang Zhanshan to wake up, and he hurriedly dragged his disabled body to the side of the instructor, who was seriously injured at this time, bleeding profusely, and was already dying.
After the instructor saw Wang Zhanshan, he immediately issued an order to him: "You take over the command, you must hold the position...", after saying this, the instructor closed his eyes forever.
At this time, Wang Zhanshan's heart surged with great sadness, but at this moment, the battle situation was anxious, and he knew that it was not the time for "children and daughters to grow up", so Wang Zhanshan, who took over the command, gathered the remaining soldiers, reorganized and assigned tasks.
The volunteers struggled to hold their positions, the enemy did not know how many times they attacked, but they made no progress, and the American army even once suspected that they had taken the wrong information, how did the volunteers, who had no water, no food, and only rifles, persist until now?
In this battle, the enemy attacked 38 times before and after, Wang Zhanshan led his teammates not to retreat half a step, and annihilated more than 600 enemy people, and by the time reinforcements arrived, there were only 10 people left in their positions.
Wang Zhanshan was lying in the corpse, his body was densely packed with bullet holes, and the blood on his body was almost dried up, and when the comrades who cleaned up the battlefield checked Wang Zhanshan, they found that he had lost his breath, and the comrades planned to bury him with a sad mood.
However, at this moment, a comrade-in-arms found that Wang Zhanshan still had a heartbeat! The military doctor hurried over to check, and everyone was overjoyed in an instant, and hurriedly sent Wang Zhanshan to the hospital for rescue.
"Don't give up" after retirement
Wang Zhanshan, who was in the hospital, was in a coma for 4 days before waking up, but when he woke up, the first thing he asked was: "Is the position held?" ”
After the battle, all of Wang Zhanshan's troops were honored with first-class merit, and he was awarded the "Second Class Combat Hero", and the DPRK also awarded him the "First Class National Flag Medal", and later Wang Zhanshan became the deputy commander of the Henan Military Region, and worked diligently until retirement.
Many people think that the old revolutionary fighters have worked for the motherland for half a lifetime and should enjoy the blessings after retirement, but Wang Zhanshan is willing to "give up" wherever he is.
In order to publicize the revolutionary spirit, every June 1 Children's Day, Wang Zhanshan would give the children the stories of the revolutionary period, and on the Qingming Festival, he would lead the children to visit the graves.
Sometimes he was also invited to the enterprise to promote patriotic education, and whenever he thought of his hard years, he couldn't help but blush.
In the years of retirement, he has never been idle, and since his retirement, Wang Zhanshan has sponsored more than 20 poor children, although his own life is very tight, and he is reluctant to buy a new dress for several years.
Once, it happened to be Wang Zhanshan's birthday, and the organization wanted to order a big cake for the old man, but Wang Zhanshan immediately refused after knowing it, because he felt that it was too much of a waste of money and he could not do anything to add trouble to the organization.
Last year, the new crown epidemic swept the country, Wang Zhanshan accompanied by his family to the organization, he trembled and took out 3,000 yuan to donate to the country, he said that this is his party fee, he is now old, can not do anything for the country, just do what you can...
On June 29, 2021, Wang Zhanshan, who could no longer walk, was invited to the Great Hall of the People, where teenagers were enthusiastically cheering the old hero.
The central authorities directly ordered that Wang Zhanshan be carried into the Great Hall of the People!
I saw that Wang Zhanshan was wearing a military uniform, although he was already white-haired, but he was radiant, as if he could still see the resolute eyes when fighting on the battlefield.
As a combat hero, Wang Zhanshan was awarded the "July 1st Medal", which is the highest honor of the party, and this day is also the centenary of the birth of our party, on this important anniversary, the chairman personally wore this medal on his chest.
This small medal carries a huge body, which is the testimony of his life of guarding the motherland, and it is also the highest respect of the Chinese people for their heroic predecessors!
Perhaps, the star we should chase is the hero who guards the motherland with his life, and what we should do is to understand the stories of our ancestors, cherish the current life, and inherit the spirit of the martyrs, which is the correct path that thousands of young people should take in the future!